dallas moore

Getting The Apple Wireless Keyboard Up and Running

As I posted yesterday, I got my new style Apple Wireless Keyboard. Being the eager person that I am, when I got home I immediately checked to make sure I was running version 10.4.10 of Mac OS X (only requirement per instructions) then turned off my Mac. I then followed the directions:

1. Turn on keyboard
2. Turn on Mac
3. Wait for Setup Assistant

It never happened. After booting, I was quickly looking at the Login window. So I logged in using my wired keyboard. Still no assistant. At that point, I just ran the Bluetooth setup under System Preferences and had it working more or less. I played World of Warcraft to test out the feel for gaming. It did feel “oogie” but the reason for that was the ergonomics of how I was seated and such. My computer is sitting on my coffee table at home and I was sitting up on the couch versus the floor which I usually do for heavy use. After a bit of gaming, I tried the various Mac OS functions at the top but they didn’t work.

The keyboard is supposed to allow you to hold the Function (Fn) key down and jump to expose view, the dashboard, volume settings, monitor brightness, etc. I figured I didn’t have a setting checked correctly, so I went into System Preferences to the Keyboard and Mouse area. Still nothing allowing those keys. In a flash, I guessed (correctly) that Apple must have a new patch for support of the keyboard and sure enough, after running System Update, there was a new update available. After an install and a reboot, the function keys worked flawlessly.

So if you’re reading this:

Run System Update first!

Then try out Apple’s process. If that doesn’t work, run the Bluetooth Setup Assistant under System Preferences, Bluetooth, Add Device…